Collection Development
Collection development is a core function of any library, encompassing the processes of building and maintaining a library's stock of information resources to meet the needs of its user community. It is a continuous process involving selection, acquisition, and periodic evaluation and weeding of materials to keep the collection relevant and useful.
Principles of Collection Development: The selection of materials is guided by established principles to ensure a balanced and user-focused collection.
- Drury's Principle: The goal is "to provide the right book to the right reader at the right time".
- Dewey's Principle: A library should select "the best reading for the largest number at the least cost".
- Ranganathan's Principle: This principle advises libraries to focus on acquiring "umbral" documents (core to users' primary interests), rely on inter-library cooperation for "penumbral" documents (supplementary materials), and avoid acquiring "alien" documents (irrelevant materials).
Process of Collection Development:
- Assessing User Needs: The first step is to ascertain the information needs of the user community. This can be done through direct methods like user suggestions and interviews, or indirect methods like studying the parent organization's goals, course curricula, and circulation records. User and use studies are crucial for building a need-based collection.
- Selection and Policy: Libraries must develop a well-thought-out selection policy, often guided by a library advisory committee. Using various selection tools—such as publishers' catalogues, national bibliographies (e.g., Indian National Bibliography), and book reviews—librarians and subject experts choose materials that align with the library's objectives and user needs.
- Acquisition: This is the process of procuring the selected materials, which includes ordering, receiving, and accessioning. This is covered in more detail under "Book Ordering" below.
- Weeding (Deselection): To save space and maintain the collection's relevance, libraries must periodically remove outdated, damaged, or unused materials. Weeding involves discarding materials or transferring them to a secondary storage facility.
- Resource Sharing and Rational Acquisition: Modern collection development is influenced by library networks and consortia, which promote rational acquisition. By sharing resources, libraries can avoid unnecessary duplication of expensive or less-used materials and build stronger core collections to serve their primary users.
Book Ordering
Book ordering is a key procedure within the acquisition process, involving the procurement of selected documents through purchase. In an integrated library system (ILS), this entire workflow is managed within the Acquisition module, which links bibliographic data with administrative and financial data.
The process can be broken down into the following stages:
Pre-Order Work: Before an order is placed, several checks are necessary.
- Bibliographic Verification: The bibliographic details (author, title, publisher, ISBN) of the requested items are verified for accuracy using selection tools.
- Duplicate Checking: The library checks its existing collection, records of books already on order, and materials awaiting processing to avoid acquiring unnecessary duplicates.
Placing the Order: Once items are approved for purchase, the library places an order with a supplier, which could be a publisher or a vendor/agent.
- Supplier Selection: Libraries must select resourceful and dependable suppliers. They may order directly from publishers or use agents, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
- Ordering Methods: Several methods are used for ordering, including:
- Regular/Firm Order: Placing a direct order for specific, selected titles.
- Standing Order: An order to automatically supply successive volumes of a multi-volume work or publications in a series as they are released.
- Blanket Order: An agreement with a supplier to automatically provide all materials fitting a predefined profile, such as all publications from a specific country or on a particular subject.
- Books on Approval: A method where local suppliers leave new books at the library for a period, allowing librarians and experts to physically examine them before making a purchase decision.
Receiving and Post-Order Work:
- When a consignment arrives, it is checked against the invoice and the original order to verify that the correct items have been supplied and are not damaged.
- After verification, the items are formally added to the library's collection through accessioning, a process where each item is given a unique number in a stock register.
- Finally, the invoices are processed for payment.
Technical Processing
Technical Processing (also called Document Processing) refers to the work of preparing acquired library materials for use by patrons. This crucial "behind-the-scenes" function makes documents discoverable and accessible. It consists of two main components: technical processing proper (classification and cataloguing) and physical processing.
Technical Processing Proper:
- Classification: This is the process of assigning a class number to a document based on its subject content, using a standardized scheme like the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) or Colon Classification (CC). The primary purpose of classification is to group books on the same subject together on the shelves, which facilitates browsing and logical arrangement. The class number, combined with a book number (often derived from the author's name), forms the call number, which is a unique address for locating the document on the shelf.
- Cataloguing: This involves creating a bibliographic record (or catalogue entry) for each document. Following a cataloguing code such as Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR), the cataloguer describes the item (title, author, publisher, etc.) and assigns access points (author, title, subject headings). These records are compiled into the library catalogue, which functions as a comprehensive index to the library's collection and allows users to find materials through various search approaches.
Physical Processing: This involves the physical preparation of documents to make them ready for circulation and to mark them as library property. Key tasks include:
- Stamping the library's ownership mark on designated pages.
- Pasting necessary items such as a date-due slip, a book pocket for the book card (in manual systems), and spine labels.
- Writing the call number on the spine label, the book's title page, and all associated catalogue cards.
In modern libraries, these technical processing tasks are largely automated using an Integrated Library System (ILS). The cataloguing module of an ILS supports standards like MARC 21 and facilitates copy cataloguing through protocols like Z39.50, allowing libraries to download bibliographic records from other institutions, which saves time and ensures standardization.